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The Focus in France

Focus in France
The Focus was an effortless way to get to St Emilion. Ralph was in town for a tasting and offered to take the pictures

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24 September 2012

Ford Focus Ecoboost
The Focus was an effortless way to get to St Emilion. Ralph was in town for a tasting and offered to take the pictures. I should’ve known better…

 

Ford Focus 1.0T EcoBoost 125PS Titanium

Story: RICHARD DAVIES

Holidays are often last minute affairs here. No cheap flights, the UK was out of the question – my didn’t it rain – and we hadn’t been to France for ages.

So we took the Focus to France. In fact, we took two.

The Nice Lady in the satnav worked out the route from one farmhouse in Wales to another in the Dordogne, said it was the thick end of 900 miles away, and told me to turn right at the end of the lane just as if I was off to a meeting at BCM’s HQ.

She thought it would take about 14 hours and in terms of hours behind the wheel, She wasn’t far wrong. Plan was to take a night-time ferry and get there in time for a late lunch.

  • It’s a co-incidence that our teenage daughters drive an old Focus, and that it’s almost the same colour as our shiny new business car. They both came to France.

Weell it didn’t work out quite like that. The French take their speed limits much more seriously these days, and to make things worse, the two teenage daughters who were to drive the ‘other’ Focus, showed a reluctance to do so at anything like a perfectly legal 130kph while ‘driving on the wrong side’ as they put it. Wimps.

Ford Focus
Two Focuses came to France; after 900 miles only the driver of the new one was sorry the journey was over

So one way and another it was nearly suppertime before we got to the Dordogne but after a bottle of Sancerre bought on the way through the village where they make it, and taking a dip in the pool, it didn’t seem to matter.

  • The fact that the Focus hasn’t had a mention so far is by way of a complement to the thoroughly civilised way it wafted us down through France.

The Focus has got Ford’s spanking new 1 litre 3 cylinder Ecoboost engine which hardly seems enough to get all that way even if it has won awards. But it was quiet, smooth and of course completely relaxed at the dismal 110kph which was about as much as the daughters would do. Still can’t quite believe how good it is.

Climate control, cruise control, sounds, satnav and all the other gadgets in the driver assist pack had done their bit to make the interminable journey almost a pleasure. When we got there I gave the bonnet a fond pat as chaps will, and walked away feeling relaxed, calm, and with barely a twinge from the back – the Focus seats are very good.

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Matt Morton

Matt Morton

Matt Morton is an automotive content writer for Business Car Manager

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